Vietnamese Alphabet – Introduction to the Vietnamese Writing and Pronunciation Systems
The Vietnamese Language is the mother tongue of some 90 million Vietnamese living in Vietnam and over 3 million living in other countries, particularly in France. The United States, Canada and Australia.
Vietnamese has a Romanized writing system and is a tone language, that is, each syllable is formed with at least one vowel accompanied by a tone (or musical pitch) which is meaningful and forms part of the syllable.
A Ă Â B C D Đ /a/ /ɒ/ /^/ /bə/ /kə/ /zə/, /jə/ /də/ E Ê G H I K L /ɛ/ /e/ /gə/ /hə/ /i/ /ka/ /lə/ M N O Ô Ơ P Q /mə/ /nə/ /ɔ/ /o/ /ə/ /pe/ /ku/ R S T U Ư V X Y /rə/ /ʃə/ /tə/ /u/ /ɯ/ /və/ /sə/ /i/
The Vietnamese Alphabet
The Vietnamese Alphabet is composed of 12 vowels and 17 consonants:
I or Y
Ơn
Ưa (thích)
To like
Zone
Yes
Ngon
Mang
Nghe
Delicious
To bring
To hear
Nho
Nhanh
Grape
Quick
Trên
Above
Vietnamese spelling
Phoneme
Rough English Equivalent
Remarks
Example
Meaning
Ca
Học
Kem
Qua
To sing
To study
Ice-cream
To cross
Zone
Yes
Me
Him
Mai
Tim
Tomorrow
Heart
Nam
In
South
To print
Tôi
Tốt
Me
Good
Vowels There are 12 vowel symbols in the Vietnamese alphabet but only 11 vowel phonemes Vietnamese spelling Phoneme Rough English Equivalent Remarks Example Meaning A /a/ Father The open /a/ Anh Elder brother Ă /ɒ/ Hat The fronted half-open, shorter and tenser than /ɐ/ Ăn To eat  /^/ But The retracted half-close somewhat similar to /^/ in but Âm Sound E /ɛ/ Bet The half-open somewhat similar to /ɛ/ in bet Em Younger brother/sister Ê /e/ May The half-close somewhat similar to /e/ may but without the y sound Êm (đềm) Soft
/i/ Me The close
similar to /i/
in me but with tongue slightly retracted Im (lặng) Quiet O /ɔ/ Law The half-open
similar to /ɔ/ in law Ong Bee Ô /o/ No The half-close
similar to /o/ in no, so; but without the V-like sound at the end Ông Mr Ơ /ə/ Fur The half-close
similar to /ə/
in fur but without the R sound
Favour U /u/ Put The close
similar to /u/ in put with rounded lips Úc Australia Ư /ɯ/ Uh-uh The close
somewhat similar to /ɯ/ but with lips pulled & not rounded
Consonants There are 28 consonant symbols in Vietnamese alphabet but only 21 consonant phonemes and only eight of them may be in final positions. They are marked with an asterisk in the following chart. Vietnamese spelling Phoneme Rough English Equivalent Remarks Example Meaning *CH / t∫/ Chop Unaspirated palatal, less friction than in English Cho To give GI /z/
/j/
Ordinary: Lenis lamino-dental
Gì What GH /g/ Go Elsewhere: Voiced dorsorelar Ghế Chair KH /k/ Cousin Lenis voiceless dorsorelar common spirant Không No *NG or NGH /ɳ/ Singer Similar to /ɳ/ sound in medial positions is in singer. Velar – nasal in final position: short unreleased
*NH /ɲ/ Canyon Palatal in final position: Short unreleased often backed.
PH /f/ Phone Voiceles labio dental Phải Right TH /θ/ Thin Lenis aspirated detal to /o/ but with stronger aspiration Thăm Visit TR /tr/ Try Fortis unaspirated Palatal, less than in English. Somewhat similar to /tr/ in entry, but with the tip of the tongue pulled back
Tonemes The standard Vietnamese Language has six tones. Each tone is a meaningful and intergral part of the syllable with which it is associated; every syllable must have a tone. The tones are indicated in conventional Vietnamese spelling by marks placed over (á, à, ả, ã) or under (ạ) single vowels or main stressed vowels in vowel clusters (v).
B or *P /b/ Bed Fortis preglottalised imploded in final position: Unreleased Ba Three/father *C or K or Q /k/ Can Fortis, unaspirated
D /z/
/j/
Ordinary: Lenis lamino-dental
Da Skin Đ /d/ Do Fortis preglottalized imploded Đi To go G /g/ Go Elsewhere: Voiced dorsorelar Ga Railway station H /h/ Hat Glottal fricative and voiceless Hai Two I /l/ Lot Lamino – Alreolar – Lateral Làm To do *M /m/
Bilabial – Nasal
in final position: unreleased
*N /n/ Not
In Post dental – nasal
in final position: unreleased
R /r/ Run Voiced Palato – Alveolar Ra To go out S /ʃ/ Show Voiceless Palato – Alveolar Sữa Milk *T /t/ Top Voiceless unaspirated – dental in final position: Unreleased
V /v/ Very Voiced labio – dental Và And X /s/ See Voiced alveolar similar to /s/ in see Xa Far Vietnamese name Tone mark Tone Description Example Meaning Không dấu V Voice starts at about the middle of the normal speaking voice range (3) and remains at approximately the same level except before a pause. Ma Ghost Dấu sắc V́ High-rising Voice starts high (4) and rises sharply. This tone Is loud and tense Má Cheek Huyền V̀ Low-falling Voice starts at a fairly low (2) and gradually Mà But Nặng Ṿ Low-broken Voice starts a little below the middle of the voice range, fails Immediately, then rises to a some-what higher point, and finally Is cut off abruptly Mạ Rice seeding Hỏi V̉ Low-rising Voice starts quite low, dips slightly and then rises rather slowly to a some-what higher level Mả Tomb Ngã Ṽ High-broken Voice starts just a little above the normal speaking voice range, dips down a very little, then rises abruptly Mã Horse
This is the end of lesson 5 about Vietnamese Alphabet. To learn about Vietnamese Grammar, please follow this link
